Tag: Real estate marketing

VHT Studios Partners with AgentEDU to Offer Real Estate Agents Best-in-Class Online Real Estate Photography Training Course

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

Real estate professionals seeking to learn about photography or sharpen their skills can subscribe to a new online class offered through AgentEDU.com, a growing national training platform for real estate agents, in partnership with VHT Studios, the nation’s leading real estate photography and visual marketing company.

AgentEDU and VHT Studios are rolling out the course, “How to Take Real Estate Photography,” to provide agents of all levels with direct online instruction on how to take gorgeous, high quality real estate photography so their listings stand out from the competition, attract more buyers and sell faster. The course is available with a subscription to AgentEDU.com. See an intro video to the course, here.

“We are turning to VHT Studios for the company’s unmatched expertise and deep commitment to serving the real estate community,” said Anne Hartnett, AgentEDU’s Managing Partner. “Agents know that quality photography for their listings is essential to grabbing a buyer’s attention, contributes to a shorter market time and helps get the best price for your listing,” she added.

AgentEDU is an online video training platform designed to help real estate agents at every level advance their skill sets, expand their industry knowledge and become better agents. AgentEDU lets agents access valuable learning resources anytime and anywhere so they become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth.

The partnership solidifies VHT’s position as the real estate agent’s primary resource for real estate photography while adding to AgentEDU’s extensive library of courses designed to help agents hone their skills and build a successful real estate career.

“We are proud to partner with AgentEDU and their parent company, Agent Publishing to provide this convenient and easy-to-access educational resource to real estate professionals,” said Sarah Anderson, Vice President, Marketing, VHT Studios.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve proven that stunning real estate photography is the most effective way to attract buyers’ attention and sell homes. Yet, many real estate professionals don’t include high quality photographs in their listings, web sites, advertising and other real estate marketing materials. An online photography course offered through AgentEDU now makes it easy for agents to elevate their marketing expertise, attract new clients and grow their brand and business,” she added.

View this introductory video of the course, “How to Take Real Estate Photography.”

About Agent Publishing
As a leading trade publication with more than 15 years covering residential real estate, Agent Publishing’s influence extends to agents across the country through print and digital magazines, live events and career development.

Agents, brokers, builders, developers, lenders, appraisers and other real estate professionals rely on Agent Publishing for a cutting-edge mix of fresh local reporting, detailed analysis of major national trends and profiling of top industry professionals. Agent Publishing is unmatched in helping residential real estate professionals better serve clients and stay on top of ever-changing industry trends and news. Learn more at http://www.AgentPublishing.com, AgentEDU.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

About VHT Studios
VHT Studios celebrates 20 years of delivering excellence to top real estate professionals who rely on VHT Studios for stunning professional photography, virtual tour videos, virtual staging, drone photography and video, interactive and standard floor plans, 3D home tours, and image management services.

VHT Studios’ broad range of visual marketing services ensures properties get seen more, sell and rent faster and at a greater price, which also helps real estate agents attract new clients and grow their businesses. A full-service partner to leading agents, brokerages and businesses, the VHT Studios team delivers the most powerful marketing and selling tools – starting with high-quality photography — through creation and final display. For more information, visit us on VHT.com, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.

The Real Estate Agent’s Simple 3-Step Marketing Plan

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

With 2016 well underway, your marketing plan should be set in action.

Many agents we ask about marketing here at AgentEDU will immediately launch into tactics, without the context of larger goals or strategies. It makes sense, since tactics—the actual steps you will take to achieve something—are concrete and easy to check off as they’re completed.

Many agents have an intuitive view of their goals (“sell more”) but breaking them down into actionable steps can be deceptively tricky. The truth is that many agents don’t understand the difference between objectives, strategies and tactics, and how these elements fit together to form a marketing plan.

So let’s break them down with a simple example.

We’ll take an “inverted pyramid” approach. Divide your 2016 marketing plan into these three components:

  1. Objectives
  2. Strategies
  3. Tactics

Step One: Objectives

The first step is to identify your objectives. Objectives are the goals of your marketing efforts. They must be specific and measurable, and should be tied to a timeline. When you plan to accomplish something is just as important as how you plan to do it.

Let’s say your objective is to increase referrals by 20 percent by the end of 2016 (an admirable goal, since according to NAR’s 2015 Member Profile, 20 percent of the typical Realtor’s business is already accounted for by referrals.) You’ve established what needs to happen, and by when.

The second step to getting more referrals is to define the strategy you’ll use to meet that goal.

Step Two: Strategy

Strategy is often confused with tactics. Strategy is how you plan to get from Point A to Point B (plane? Train? Automobile?) while the tactics are the tasks you complete to move forward (buy your ticket early, pack light, stock up on road snacks). Strategy, therefore, is the broad look at how you are going to achieve your objective.

To meet the objective of increasing referrals by 20 percent by the end of the year, some strategies could include:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Strengthen past client relationships
  • Develop a more compelling marketing message (redefine why customers should choose you)

…and so on.

Depending on the scale and timeline of the objective, you may need to use multiple strategies.

The third step is to define your tactics.

Step Three: Tactics

Once you’ve identified the strategies you need to reach your objectives, you can start to identify the specific tactics you can use to make it happen.

Let’s say you went with the “strengthen past client relationships” strategy to meet the objective of increasing referrals by 20 percent by the end of 2016. Your tactics may include:

  • Snail mail a quarterly newsletter to past clients
  • Send out holiday cards with a personal touch
  • Start a monthly email newsletter
  • Send client appreciation gifts
  • Initiate follow-up satisfaction calls with clients six months after closing

If you decide to go with the strategy of “increasing brand awareness,” you may include these tactics:

  • Run ads with local publications
  • Take out a bus bench ad
  • Run ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
  • Update the design of your printed materials (brochures, For Sale signs, etc.)

Like business objectives, tactics should be tied to a timeline. Set a deadline for the completion of each task that’s tied to one of your tactics ­– this is especially important if you’ll be delegating any of those tasks.

Defining marketing objectives, strategies and tactics isn’t difficult, but it does require careful thought and consideration, something many busy agents might not think they have time for. Agents with good business instincts are likely following this structure in their marketing in some way already, though the marketing plan may not be formally documented anywhere.

A clear definition of what you want to accomplish with your marketing and how you will get there is one key component of growing your real estate business.

AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.